Metal-bound box and the like



May 14, 1929.

A. ELMENDORF METAL BOUND BOX AND THE LIKE Filed April 4, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ftY/f671f07" May 14, 1929.

A. ELMENDORF METAL BOUND BOX AND THE LIKE 2 Sheets-Sfieet 2 Filed Apr i1 4, 1925 II I l M -4 k A m/ a z Patented May 14, 19.29.

PATENT OFFICE.

ARI/[IN ELMENDORF, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

METAL-BOUND BOX AND THE LIKE.

Application filed April (1,

it is at presentcommon practice to make boxes, adapted to serve as shipping containers,,out of: thin sheets of wood, such as wood veneer; the four side walls being bound together by hoops of wire. Each side wall of such a box must be made either of a single sheet or of several sheets whose combined widths will be equal to the width ot the wall; thus using up the workmans timeyin selecting the thin boards or sheets and fitting or trying them until the proper combination is obtained.

The object of the present invention is principally to build veneer boxes out of pieces selected hapbazardly and without regard to width; thereby permittin the utilization of materials that have heretofore been wasted, and at the same time reducing the labor cost in assembling for-widths.

The ordinary wire-bound boxes as heretofore made, with single-ply walls, have open joints at the corners and between the meeting edges of the sheets or strips of veneer; and, wherever there may happen to be a knot hole,

' there is of course an opening through the wall of the boX. A further object of the present invention is to produce a cheap and simple wire-bound box out of waste or low grade ma terial that may be split or contain knot holes; without leaving any openings of an objectionablo size through the walls of the box.

in carrying out my invention, I do not use the wire ties held in place by staples, since these ties can slide lengthwise through the staples that hold them, but substitute for the wires and the staples metal straps having many prongs struck up out of the same; these pronged straps serving to tie the strips or piecesof veneer securely together and also to the cleats that are used at the ends of the veneer. Therefore, viewed in one of its aspects, my invention may be said to have for its object to produce a simple and novel metal tie for boxes or the like.

The various features of novelty whereby my invention is characterized will hereinafter he pointed out with particularity in the claims; but, for a full understanding of my invention and of its objects and advantages,

reference may be hadto the following de- 1925. Serial No. 20,612.

tailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is an elevation of a panel adapted to tormthe four side walls of a box, flattened so as to bring the four walls into the same plane, the elements of the panel being held together by straps embodying the present invention; Fig. 2 is a top edge view oi the panel shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a section taken ap pronimatcly on line of Fig. 1, on an enlarged scale; F 4: is a view similar to Fig. 2, showing the panel folded to form the four sides of a box; Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 2, showing a fngment of a double-ply structure; Fig. 6 is a top view of a fragment of one of the straps; Fig. 7 is an edge view of the strap shown in Fig. 6; F ig. 8 is a perspective view of a fragment of a diii'erent type of strap from that shown in Figs. 6 and 7 Fig.

9 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing a panel embodying not only my improved straps but also an improved arrangen'ient of strips or sheets of veneer; Fig. 10 is an edge view of the panel shown in F ig. 9; Fig. 11 is a plan view of a modified term of panel; Fig. 12 is a View similar to Figs. 1 and 9, showing a still different form of panel, portions thereof being broken away, and Fig. 13 is a diagrammatic view showing the stresses tending to resist the collapse oi box when it is dropped.

teiterriug to Figs. 1 to 8, 1, 1 and 2, 2 represent thin metal straps extcndiug parallel with each other across the length olithe panel made up out of thin boards oi wood or other fibrous material 3 laid edge to edge. As is usual in boxes made out of this thin material, the panel is provided at its long edges with cleats l, 4 divided into sections provided with mortices and tenons at their ends to permit the panel to be bent to form the four sides of a box or shell. The fibrous strips or sheets are fastened to the cleats by the straps 1 whose constmiction is best shown in G and 7. It will be seen that the metal of these straps is punched out to form numerous long narrow prongs 5 projecting laterally from the straps. [is the strips or sheets and the cleats are assembled in a suitable machine, the straps are progressively punched and the prongs ot the straps 1, 1 driven through the panel and into Cir 1 long enough to pass through the veneer, and

' be clenched, they may be placed close together and thus insure the successful tying together I of the strips even though the latter be very the joints between the sheets of the other senarrow;

In Figs. 1 to at I have illustrated the ordinary box constructionhaving my improved straps substituted for the usual wires. In Fig. 5 I have shown the veneer laid in two layers, the outer layer of strips 3, and the inner layer of strips 3 the strips of one layer breaking joints with the strips of the other layer, at least as far as is practicable. In this construction a knot hole or a split end, in one strip will usually be covered by a sound portion of the overlying strip, so that the walls of a box will be reasonably tight even though the material be poor.

7 r In Figs. 9 and 10 there isshown a further improvement. Instead of making the body of the panel of strips or sheets whose meeting edges are at right angles to the cleats, I employ two series of strips or sheets, 7 and 8.

The strips or sheets of each series are laid diagonally, so that the joints do not lie at right angles to the cleats. Furthermore, the joints between the sheets in one series cross ries. The two layers of sheets or stri s in the panel are fastened together by the intermediate straps 2, 2 and are secured to the cleats by the straps 1, 1. hen the panel is to be shaped into a shell or box, it may be bent along theproper lines in any desired way. For many purposes, it will be sufiicient to make the bends in an ordinary breaking mach ne, because this operat1on Wlll leave enough-fibresintact at the corners to make the finishedbox reasonably tight; it being understood that when a sheet of veneer is bent at an acute angle to the direction of length of the fibres the proportion of un broken fibres to broken fibres is much less than when the bend is madeat right angles or parallel to the direction of the length of the fibres.

If desired, the two layers of crossing diagonal strips or sheets as shown in Fig. 9,

may be sewed together by one or more rows of stitching passing lengthwise of the panel. Such an arrangement is shown in Fig. 11 there being two rows of stitching, indicated at 9, 9. This material may be used in connection with my improved straps, or otherwise, as may be desired.

The corners of boxes made out of the panels shown in Figs. '9 to 11 will be quite tight or substantially so, depending upon the method employed in bending the panels. Furtheri more, the construction is such that each wall is practically imperforate.

I However, with the construction shown in Fig. 1 there will be open joints at the corners, from the upper cleats to the lower ones and there will also be open joints wherever two of the strips or sheets meet. In order to make the sides of the box and also the corners tight, there may be placed on the inner side of the panel such as shown in Fig. 1, between the strips 3 and the cleats, a continuous sheet 10 of tough paper as in Fig. 12. The aper not only covers the joints between the individual boards or strips, but will extend continuously past the corners formed by bending the pane When the panels are made double-ply as in Figs. 5, 9, 10 and 11, the veneer or other material of which the panels are made may be thinner than where the construction is like that shown in Figs. 1 to 4. The greatest advantage, of the multiple-pl y arrangement of strips laid diagonally as in liigs. 9-11 is that strips of any available width may be used, being simplyselected haphazardly and laid side by side until a panel of suflicient length is secured. Thus tight or comparatively tight boxes may be cheaply made out of materials that could not be utilized in the manufacture of the old style of single-ply veneer boxes.

There is another important advanta e in the diagonal arrangement of strips. \g hen a box is dropped upon one of its corners it tends to flatten in the vertical direction and become longer on a transverse diagonal. Thus in Fig. 13 a box A is shown as having been dropped at one corner upon a surface B. The distance between the corners C and D tends to increase. The direction of the stresses that resist the lengthenin' of the diagonal between the corners d D is indicated by the arrows E, E. When the strips are laid at right angles to the top and bottom of the box, these stresses are across the grain and the resistance to distortion is small; whereas, when the strips are laid diagonally, the stresses are more in the direction of the length of the grain, and the resistance offered to distortion is much greater. Therefore a box made oi? strips laid diagonally is much stronger than one in which the strips are at right 'angles to an edge of the box. Furthermore,

a blow by a sharp corner against the side of such a box cannot develop a gap through splitting.

While I have illustrated and described with particularity only a few preferred forms of my invention I do not desire to be limited to the exact structural details thus illusstraps overlying and extending across said panel and having prongs struck therefrom and passing through thesheets of both series.

2. In combination, a panel comprising two series of veneer sheets lying upon each other the sheets of eachseries being arranged edge to edge and making joints crossing the joints in the sheets of the other series, and a plurality of metal straps overlying and extend ing lengthwise of the panel and each having 10 numerous prongs punched out of the same and driven entirely through the panel.

In testimony whereof, I sign this specification.

ARMIN ELMENDORF. 

